Melrose had a notably attractive setting in 1851, when developer Charles H. Haven acquired 1,000 acres of Federal Land Claims and platted lots as the nucleus for a great “Park of Fruits of a Thousand Acres.” The area contained fruit trees and flowers of every description, as well as orchards and vineyards. Haven tried to auction the lots publicly to wealthy St. Louis residents as places to build summer homes, bringing interested parties from the Glencoe Train Station to Melrose with a brass band to generate interest in the enterprise. The venture fell into debt, however, and the sheriff sold the property. By 1879, an atlas showed a three-story frame seminary building in the area, and later the Melrose school, which still stands. Herman Kreienkamp, a merchant in Melrose, built a large frame store and post office that was called Melrose Hall because it could be rented for events during the 1880s; it still stands as the Kreienkamp Store and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.